[KineJapan] "Burning" NHK Drama Special broadcast

[John Junkerman]

I had the very curious experience of watching NHK's broadcast of a "tokushu
drama" version of Lee Chang-dong's "Burning" on Dec. 29 (10 pm Sat on NHK
General channel). I was expecting to see the film (which is based on a
Murakami Haruki short story) that won the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes and has
had a strongly positive response from critics, but what I saw was
beautiful, inventive, very Murakami-esque in its oddly skewed and evocative
slant on the pedestrian lives of its aimless characters, some hints of what
critics raved about... but completely unengaging and unrewarding (it ended
without an ending).

Looking into it after the broadcast, it turned out that someone (NHK
itself?) had cut 53 minutes from the film. Of course, this happens all the
time after a film has finished theatrical release. The "drama special" was
also dubbed...happens all the time, though it ruins the actors'
performances.

But why was this done a month before the film's theatrical release in
Japan? Was this because NHK produced the film and has final cut, and the
right to exploit it as it sees fit? I can't imagine that Lee directed this
version, or signed off on it. I can't imagine Murakami did either.

>From what I understand, NHK has commissioned a number of leading Asian
directors to make films based on Murakami's stories, and this is the first
to be released. There's clearly a lot of juice behind the project (using
hot Korean actors, and hot Japanese actors for the dubbing), but where are
the director's rights in this equation?

Some kind of hyping imperative seems to override the director's vision. To
broadcast this chopped-up, incomprehensible version of a film, under its
original title, with no apparent effort to let the audience know that it is
not the same film--what were they thinking, if they were thinking at all?

I'll look forward to seeing the original film when it is released in
February, but I'd bet that a lot of those who watched the "drama special"
won't bother, because they were left bored and perplexed.

If anyone has heard some back story on all of this, I'd appreciate hearing
it, because to me, it just flummoxes.

-- 
John Junkerman
jtj53213 at gmail.com
2-18-6 Ehara-cho, Nakano
Tokyo 165-0023
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/kinejapan/attachments/20181231/3ab90517/attachment.html>